Bus Routes serving Hospitals

Keith Prince: How many bus routes serving hospitals have been cancelled since May 2016?

The Mayor: Half of London’s over 650 bus routes run within 150 metres of a hospital. Of these, since May 2016, six routes have been withdrawn, of which three have been replaced by changes to existing services. Of the routes withdrawn, one was a school route (route 619), withdrawn due to a school relocation, and two were due to changes in passenger demand (route 10 and RV1). The six hospital locations these served continue to be served by over 20 other routes.
After becoming Mayor, I asked Transport for London (TfL) to undertake a review of bus services to London’s hospitals, and this was updated in June 2019. More information can be found on page 251 here: http://content.tfl.gov.uk/csopp-20190613-public-agenda-and-papers.pdf.
As a result of this review, TfL has introduced a number of targeted improvements which have improved access to health services in London. These include rerouteing route 5 to serve Queens Hospital in Romford, rerouting route 96 to serve Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford and increasing the frequency of route R11 which serves Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup. Further changes, including a number of route extensions serving Central Middlesex Hospital, Epsom Hospital, North Middlesex University Hospital, Barnet Hospital and Northwick Park Hospital and a new route serving Newham Hospital, are due to be introduced or consulted on soon.